A222 - Exploring Philosophy : Religion without objectivity !

I’ve only read to page 23 and listened to the first two chapter audios, and I might being missing something, but I am already somewhat underwhelmed by the rigour of the arguments and discussion in the course text and learning materials – it appears, so far, somewhat less than objective.

At the bottom of page 20 the author says,

‘Have a go at making yourself believe this:

Custard is really spaghetti’

And from this ‘experiment’ makes the huge and illogical leap to the statement that,

‘So it is hard to see how you would be able to make yourself believe that God exists, unless you think that there is good evidence that God exists.’

I am missing something here.

This appears to me to be ridiculous, the experiment would have more value to me if he’d said,

‘Have a go at making yourself believe this:

Custard is really spaghetti knowing that…..

You have been told all your life by authority figures, parents and teachers that Custard is really Spaghetti and you were initiated in to this belief as a baby without any conscious choice in the matter, and this belief has been re-enforced all your life by custom and culture.

In every town you visit there is a big building devoted to the belief in Spaghetti Custard. There are many books on the subject of Spaghetti Custard, and history tells us that in the past some people did question the whole custard spaghetti thing, but burning them at the stake seemed to dissuade others from voicing similar opinions. There are festivals to Custard Spaghetti dotted round the year in which we give gifts and thanks for a yellow and al-dente future, although the Custardy Spaghetti message is lost somewhat in the marketing.

If you are good when you die you go to a sweet, warm and yellowy heaven, if your bad you suffer continued Penne-tence . There are other people, in other lands, who believe in a different carbohydrate based sweet or pudding, and wars have been waged in their name. Lastly, tradition and culture dictates that the three major milestones of birth, marriage and death are marked through Spaghetti Custard rituals.

Now would you believe that Custard is really Spaghetti without any real evidence…… I’d have to say…..yes you probably would.

I see the same problem in the audio ‘debate’. The theists are all sincere, intelligent and no doubt good people, but they all talk about their faith as though they came to the decision to follow their particular faith from a ‘blank canvas’ after much examining of the facts and testing of truths in a completely open and objective manner. Then having examined every possible position and religion they then made the decision that the faith they chose was right for them.

However, I suspect (although I have no proof) that they were actually born in to their faith and it is the same as the rest of their family. Social situation and cultural expectations must surely be a major factor in determining the faith they follow, and so the influence of accident of birth is the biggest factor in which faith you follow rather than pure belief in a truth, and surely this cannot be discounted.